New Favorites for Thanksgiving
November 23, 2007 by Andrea 
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Filed under Holidays, Poultry, Vegetables
My plan to blog yesterday fell by the wayside as this Thanksgiving was as busy as ever. Though we stayed at home and had a small celebration with our little family, it seems that we’re still stuck in the mode of struggling to get meals on the table while trying to manage the three-ring circus, aka our three little boys. I did manage to continue my tradition of forgetting to serve the cranberry chutney. Last year was the first time in three years that I actually remembered to serve it, and I promised myself that I would remember this year, but once again it sat in the refrigerator forlornly while we enjoyed the turkey and the rest of the trimmings. Oh well, it will taste good with turkey sandwiches for the next few days!
In a departure from our tradition, we roasted a whole turkey this year rather than just a turkey breast using Elise’s method for roasting the bird breast-side down and Food & Wine’s recipe for shallot butter with Madeira thyme gravy. The breast meat was so tender and juicy it was falling apart as we cut it, and the flavor of the gravy was a real winner. I will never roast a bird breast-side up again because it was *that* good. After picking off all the meat for a turkey pot pie, the carcass went into a stockpot to make some good, rich stock for turkey noodle soup.
The forgotten cranberry chutney was a variation on the cranberry apple chutney I made last year, but instead of ginger we used fresh squeezed orange juice in place of some of the water. The flavor is tangy and good.
We continued our November theme of roasted squash in a dish of mashed roasted squash with green chilies, a variation on our favorite sweet potato dish, and we agreed that this was our favorite roasted squash dish from the whole entire month. We really liked it, and even our oldest boy ate all of his.
I got out of making dessert this year as we were invited to share dessert with our neighbors. His parents are visiting for the holiday, and she is quite a good baker, so we got to enjoy an apple crisp with raisins and some spice bread, both of which were delicious.
Now that Thanksgiving is over it’s time for me to start planning for upcoming Christmas events. Hopefully I’ll be able to make ahead as much as possible!
Best wishes from the Meyers family to yours for a blessed holiday season.
I agree, Elise’s mom’s recipe is a real keeper. I always roasted my turkey breast side down, but stuffing the turkey with the vegetables adds so much flavor. I think the gravy made from this turkey is also so flavorful. Hope you’re having a nice holiday.
Oh, that photo is perfect! Such tender, moist turkey. Yay!